Nolan Stross
Nolan Stross was a scientist who appeared in Dead Space: Aftermath and Dead Space 2. Biography Mission on Aegis VII Nolan Stross was the highest ranking scientist amongst the crew of the [[USG O'Bannon|USG O'Bannon]] and was the only one to know of the true intentions of the mission. Nolan was to wait for a team of engineers to find a fragment from the Red Marker and observe it. Once the fragment was in his possession he began to grow more and more obsessed over it. Eventually it revealed its secrets to him and with this he began to fall into madness. With his mind failing him, he snuck into the Medical Wing to find a dead body, and with this act he doomed the ship and its crew. Still in shock over his apparent failure, he fled, watching the Necromorph slaughter his assistant and two engineers. Shocked and distraught, he fled to his private quarters where he then slaughtered his baby and wife. During this he saw them as if they were infected. He was found by Isabel Cho, whom he had been having an affair with, and taken to other survivors of the outbreak. Stross explained that the Marker fragment would have to be destroyed for the outbreak to end. The group moved towards the ship's reactor core to do so, but Stross could not bring himself to throw it into the core. Isabel took the fragment from him and destroyed it herself. He was later apprehended by a rescue team and interrogated. Since he had come into contact with the fragment and was affected by it, Stross was then held in cryogenic storage on Titan Station for research. Outbreak on The Sprawl thumb|300px|right|Stross Attacking Ellie/ Stross's Death Nolan Stross was another test subject in the same project as Isaac. As is explained in the movie Dead Space: Aftermath, Stross took part in a cleanup on Aegis VII where he and a small group of CEC engineers were assigned to collect Red Marker fragments scattered across the surface after the events of the original Dead Space. They find a shard on the planet, and bring it back on board for study, but Stross develops his dementia here, as his continued exposure to the shard causes him to hallucinate. A Necromorph outbreak occurs on Stross' vessel, forcing him and a group of survivors into battle. After the recovered fragment of the Red Marker is destroyed, an assault team extracts them, and interrogates them on their ship. After it is revealed that Stross' exposure to the Marker shard is useful, he is put into stasis and transported to the Sprawl. Throughout the game, Stross begins to lose his sanity and constantly refers to "steps" that Isaac must take in order to stop the Marker. At first he seems rather helpful towards Isaac to the point where he confides to him. However throughout the game he becomes progressively worse for wear in terms of sanity. Each time he appears before Isaac he tells him about the steps which would stop the Marker. Near the end of the game, Stross snaps and attacks Ellie, gouging out one of her eyes with a screwdriver (fearing he would not be strong enough to make it through the process, and wishing to make Ellie understand Step Three: the "NoonTech Diagnostic Machine"). Soon after he attempts to kill Isaac (again attempting to demonstrate Step Three), but Isaac fights him off and stabs him in the head with the screwdriver, killing him. Death Scene *Should Isaac fail to counter Stross' attack, the latter will repeatedly stab him in the head with the same screwdriver he stabbed Ellie with, continuously yelling, "Tell her I'm sorry!" Trivia *In both Dead Space: Aftermath and Dead Space 2, Stross is voiced and modelled after actor Curt Cornelius. *In Dead Space: Aftermath when he kills his wife and child it is unclear if it was a hallucination or if they were transformed into Necromorphs until Dr. Cho tells her side of the story. *In the PC version of Dead Space 2, Stross's attack on Isaac often experiences a glitch making the sequence unwinnable. This has a chance of being rectified by restarting the game. If this does not help, continue trying. *In Dead Space: Aftermath, Stross shared a likeness with the 3D animated Stross, but did not with the cell-shaded 2D animated Stross. *Stross seems to be very level headed after the events of the O'Bannon. Which is very unusual since even the most strong-willed people in the movies and games suffer immensely after the death of a loved one. But he did believe they were in fact Necromorphs, he may have believed that they weren't even them, as when he speaks to his hallucinations in ''Dead Space 2'', he acts as if they were still alive and with him. Much like Dr. Kyne and his hallucinations of his wife. *A video of Stross can be seen in the first level of Dead Space 2. It depicts a "Session №158", hinting at how many times Stross went through cycles of accessing Marker data in his brain and memory wipes. *Just as Isaac Clarke is named after science fiction writers Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, Nolan Stross is named after authors William F. Nolan and Charles Stross. *In several ways, Isaac and Stross are very similar. Both are named after Science Fiction authors, both have also had data implanted into their brains by the Red Marker, both were also test subjects for marker experiments. The difference is that Isaac was able remain coherent and come to terms with his guilt and Stross was not. Isaac, according to Tiedemann, was also able to give purer data for the Marker Experiments, making Isaac the superior subject. * When Stross's dead body is stomped by Isaac, an audio log will appear. His body is one of the few non-infected corpses which will relinquish an item, through stomping or otherwise. Some corpses of military officers share this trait as well. * If you look behind Stross before the first Leaper appears, you can see civilians being chased by a Puker. * Oddly, Stross' head doesn't explode when you toss it with Kinesis. * As mentioned in Dead Space: Aftermath, Nolan suffers from claustrophobia, fear of small spaces, one of the most common phobias. * Throughout the entire movie, Stross is consistently shown as being left-handed, both writing and using tools with his left hand. However, it is not as apparent in the game. * When wearing any of the security suit variants, Stross' face can be seen on Isaac's chest screen. * Stross is the second of three humans to be killed by Isaac, the first being one of Daina's bodyguards which Isaac kicks into space, and the third one being Tiedemann whom he shoots in the neck with a Javelin Gun and decapitates. Gallery File:Stross_DS2.jpg|Stross in Dead Space 2 File:DSA Stross 2.PNG|Stross in Dead Space: Aftermath File:DSA Stross.PNG|Stross' 2D appearance in Dead Space: Aftermath File:DS2S_Isaac_and_Nolan.png|Stross and Isaac Clarke on a Wanted screen identified as fugitives. File:WP_000041.jpg|An odd glitch showing two Stross in a scene ﻿ Sources Category:Sprawl Residents Category:USG O'Bannon Crew Members Category:Characters